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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Jesus Was Dead and Remain Buried?

Titanic director James Cameron's latest documentary on the tomb of Jesus Christ has rock the boat of both biblical scholarship and the wider Christian community. This latest documentary film has Dr. James Tabor (University of North Carolina), Dr. Shimon Gibson (Albright Institute of Archeological Research), Dr. Francois Bovon (Harvard Divinity School) and others as the experts.

The film claims that Jesus was buried together with his wife Mary Magdalene and, possibly, their son, Judah, in that tomb. It also suggests that the 'James' ossuary which became headline in 2002 was taken from the same tomb. Seems that this documentary based its claim on one of the theory in James Tabor's book 'Jesus Dynasty'.

"The film suggests that ossuaries once containing the bones of Jesus and his family are now stored in a warehouse belonging to the Israel Antiquities Authority in Bet Shemesh, outside Jerusalem... The tomb where the remains were found was unearthed in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem during the construction of an apartment building in 1980... During the excavation, archeologists found 10 ossuaries and three skulls. Six of the ossuaries had names inscribed into them: Jesus son of Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, Maria, Mariamne, Joseph and Matthew." James Cameron defends the documentary

Various archeologists and Biblical scholars have responded. Leen Ritmeyer comments "Jesus and his family hailed from Nazareth in Galilee, as anyone with a shred of Bible knowledge knows and there was no reason for them to have a family tomb in Jerusalem." The same sort of insight was given by Joe Zias as he told CBS "It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus, he was known as Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Jerusalem, and if the family was wealthy enough to afford a tomb, which they probably weren't, it would have been in Nazareth, not here in Jerusalem."